Chest

Chest

Volume 90, Issue 2, August 1986, Pages 218-221
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Clinical Investigations
Pursed Lips Breathing Training Using Ear Oximetry

https://doi.org/10.1378/chest.90.2.218Get rights and content

Pursed lips breathing (PLB) training is often used in the management of patients with chronic obstructive lung disease (COLD). Previous clinical studies have demonstrated that PLB improves arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2) and CO2 removal as well as relieving dyspnea. Twelve hypoxemic subjects with stable COLD were randomly assigned to either the pursed lips (P) or control group consisting of general relaxation (R). The SaO2 was monitored via ear oximetry, and respiratory rate and tidal volume were monitored using a strain gage transducer and the minute volume was calculated. The PLB was taught by an experienced instructor using the ear oximeter as a monitoring display with a goal toward increasing SaO2. The subject was taught general relaxation (Rlx) with the aid of pleasant music. We compared PLB and Rlx treatments using an A-B-A crossover study design. In both groups, PLB significantly improved SaO2 over baseline (p<0.001) whereas Rlx did not. We conclude that patients can learn to increase their SaO2 by PLB using ear oximetry adjunctively.

Section snippets

Methods

Twelve subjects with stable chronic obstructive lung disease who were hypoxemic at rest or low level exercise were asked to volunteer for the study. Mean descriptive statistics were: age, 67±5.2 years; FVC, 1.75±.9 L; FEV1 0.75±.4 L; and SaO2, 91.1±2.5 percent. None of the subjects had experienced pursed lips breathing training within a year of the study and they were neither naturally nor by training, pursed lip breathers. They were presently nonsmokers and had no intimate contact with second

Results

The two subject groups are compared in Table 1. Their mean ages, spirometric indices, and SaO2 were not significantly different. The responses of the physiologic variables to relaxation and pursed lips breathing are compared in Tables 2 and 3. In both groups, pursed lips breathing significantly improved SaO2 over relaxation and baseline values (p<0.001). Relaxation did not significantly improve SaO2 over baseline. Pursed lips breathing was accompanied by both a significant increase in mean

Discussion

This study demonstrates that patients can learn to improve arterial oxygen saturation by the simple maneuver of pursed lips breathing exclusive of breathing supplemental oxygen. The ear oximeter was used to focus the subject and the therapist on SaO2, as well as providing the measurement tool for the study. The digital readout was their guide since it provided continuous flow of valuable information. Thus, the nurse had the opportunity to immediately give encouragement to the subject when

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Cited by (0)

This work was supported in part by the James j. Roberts Research Fund.

Manuscript received September 9; revision accepted January 2.

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Copyright © 1986 The American College of Chest Physicians. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.